How to love your customer on Valentine’s Day and increase client loyalty

It’s Valentine’s Day this week. I hope you have prepared your significant other a nice card. Perhaps you have also bought them a small gift. Or are planning to have a nice meal with them later. Relationships are important on Valentine’s Day.

Printers also need to love their customers on Valentine’s Day

This is how the ideal relationship should be between printer and client – on Valentine’s Day and throughout the year!

Printers who love their customers will create long-lasting relationships. This will make it easier for them to control their sales pipeline and achieve their sales targets.

Printers who take their customer for granted will have to work much harder to make their sales targets. They won’t have the same control over their sales pipeline. This is because their customers will regard them as commodity suppliers and be far less loyal.

So here are three ways to avoid this problem and make your customers love you this Valentine’s Day.

Send your customers cards

Handwritten cards really stand out in these days of e-mails. Don’t be afraid to tell your customer that you love them! You should use this opportunity to send a short note to tell a customer that they are special. Or to thank them for a job. Just make sure that you produce your cards in the right way. You can find out more here. (Yes, it’s all about Christmas cards, but the same principles apply to Valentine’s Day) (Linky link).

However, you needn’t just stop at cards.

Send your customers gifts

Gifts are a great way for a customer to feel appreciated. They don’t have to be expensive. I have heard of some print sales people sending home-made cookies and chutneys. And if your skills don’t include this sort of thing, there are plenty of other alternatives. Cake, cookies, flowers, chocolates, books – the list is endless.

What better time to send them a gift than on Valentine’s Day?

You do need to make sure you are sending something that the customer wants. Some customers are also uncomfortable with the idea of receiving gifts. In which case you can make them feel special in a completely different direction.

Give your customers ideas

Many customers want to look good in front of their boss. Or they may be struggling to come up with the right results in their job. The gift of a good business idea can be extremely valuable to them.

Giving a customer ideas can be handled in two ways. One way is to offer to sit down with them for a strategy session. The other is to give them a great idea without any prompting from them (although you will need to understand their business well to be able to achieve this).

Send them a message that you want to make them achieve more on Valentine’s Day and schedule a meeting with them.

So there are three ways to stand out to your customer, and to make them love you. However, if this is to succeed you need to remember one thing.

Don’t act like a sales person

All these things should be about the customer – not you. So you need to keep the sales to a minimum at this time. A card which thanks a customer and then goes into a sales pitch doesn’t feel special. The great idea you give your customer doesn’t have to be about print. You want your customer to appreciate you as a person. Then they will reward you with more loyalty.

Does this really work?

I know one company that sends out sweets with their invoices and order acknowledgements. And customers talk about them all the time. I know one or two who even like to place work simply to get more sweets!

So these strategies will work with the right type of customer. You should start loving your customers right now.

Here is a special Valentine’s Day action point

Do one thing on Valentine’s Day to make sure that your most valuable customer feels loved by you.

Valentine’s Day is a day to make people feel special

That can include your customers as well as your loved ones.
=============================================================P.S. How do you get the type of customer with whom you can create the relationship? To find out more you need to sign up to the Profitable Print Relationships newsletter right now. And you’ll get a free copy of “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them”.

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2 Responses to How to love your customer on Valentine’s Day and increase client loyalty

Great suggestions! A New Jersey freight contractor I used to do a lot of business with would send me a box of chocolates every Valentine’s Day from a candy manufacturer local to their business. I shared the sweets with everyone in the department as almost everyone enjoys a late afternoon treat or two! Another vendor in the Chicago area sends individual sweet treats in the box along with printed samples, it always brings a smile to my face and it is a small way for them to express their gratitude. These companies stood out due to when and how they chose to show their appreciation for my business. It’s a nice idea to send clients something outside of the end of year holiday time frame, why show them your appreciation only once a year when it doesn’t cost a lot to show them a little appreciation at other times during the year. After all, doesn’t everyone like to feel special all year long?

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